ESA Observing the Earth

Is Europe an underestimated sink for carbon dioxide?

A new study using satellite data suggests that Europe’s vegetation extracts more carbon from the atmosphere than previously thought.

Satellites guide sailor from treacherous waters

While sailing south of Africa on an around-the-world voyage, Matteo Miceli was suddenly alerted to a massive iceberg in his path.

Eye-catching Earth

Peek into the past

Satellites for Santa

Christmas wrapping

Earth from Space

Salinity matters

Measurements of salt held in surface seawater are becoming ever-more important for us to understand ocean circulation and Earth’s water cycle. ESA’s SMOS mission is proving essential to the quest.

Salinity matters

Measurements of salt held in surface seawater are becoming ever-more important for us to understand ocean circulation and Earth’s water cycle. ESA’s SMOS mission is proving essential to the quest.

Pinpointing displacement

CryoSat extends its reach on the Arctic

CryoSat has delivered this year’s map of autumn sea-ice thickness in the Arctic, revealing a small decrease in ice volume. In a new phase for ESA’s ice mission, the measurements can now also be used to help vessels navigate through the north coastal waters of Alaska, for example.

Colours of Borneo

Mexico City subsidence

Tapping into Earth observation data for international development

A new initiative brings ESA and the Asian Development Bank together to exploit satellite Earth observation data for sustainable growth.

Earth from Space

Monitoring soil moisture

Romanian mosaic

Sentinel-3 fully formed

For more than 18 months, engineers have been carefully piecing together the many components that make up ESA’s Sentinel-3A satellite. Now hosting an array of instruments to provide a wealth of information about Earth’s oceans and land, the satellite is complete, standing proud for testing.

Earth from Space

On solid ground

Lovers of architecture and history can rest easy: the stability of historical buildings can now be monitored in real time by a new technique with its roots in space.

Timing carbon turnover

Scientists are using satellite data to improve understanding of the time it takes for a carbon atom fixed in a plant by photosynthesis to return into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide – known as ‘carbon turnover’.

GOCE iBook

GOCE iBook

Fogo volcano on Sentinel’s radar

Radar images from the Sentinel-1A satellite are helping to monitor ground movements of the recently erupted Fogo volcano.

Linked by laser

Attention app developers

Laser link offers high-speed delivery

Marking a first in space, Sentinel-1A and Alphasat have linked up by laser stretching almost 36 000 km across space to deliver images of Earth just moments after they were captured.

Tropical thaw

Earth from Space

Understanding the ‘OC’ in GOCE

A year after the satellite reentered the atmosphere, scientists using data from the GOCE satellite have made a breakthrough in our understanding of ocean currents.

GOCE results live

Monitoring malaria

Megacity

Call for Media

Earth from Space

Watch live: BiDS ’14

Saharan scene

Watch live: BiDS ’14

Big data from space

Earth from Space

DLR and ESA sign the Collaborative Ground Segment Cooperation for Sentinel data

With the first Copernicus satellite now operational, ESA and the DLR German Aerospace Center have signed an arrangement on managing and accessing Sentinel data.

Dead Sea

Earth from Space

Five years of soil moisture and beyond

ESA’s SMOS satellite has clocked up more than one billion kilometers orbiting Earth to improve our understanding of our planet’s water cycle. Marking its fifth birthday, all the data collected over land and ocean have been drawn together to show how moisture in the soil and salinity in the ocean change over the year.

Five years of soil moisture, ocean salinity and beyond

ESA’s SMOS satellite has clocked up more than one billion kilometers orbiting Earth to improve our understanding of our planet’s water cycle. Marking its fifth birthday, all the data collected over land and ocean have been drawn together to show how moisture in the soil and salinity in the ocean change over the year.

Five years of soil moisture, ocean salinity and beyond

ESA’s SMOS satellite has clocked up more than one billion kilometres orbiting Earth to improve our understanding of our planet’s water cycle. Marking its fifth birthday, all the data collected over land and ocean have been drawn together to show how moisture in the soil and salinity in the ocean change over the year.

Five years of soil moisture, ocean salinity and beyond

ESA’s SMOS satellite has clocked up more than one billion kilometres orbiting Earth to improve our understanding of our planet’s water cycle. Marking its fifth birthday, all the data collected over land and ocean have been drawn together to show how moisture in the soil and salinity in the ocean change over the year.

Weeping Taranaki

Trial separation prepares for final release

Sentinel-2A is in the middle of an extensive testing programme to make sure this land-monitoring satellite is fit for launch next spring. As well as being shaken and stressed, engineers have also checked that it will separate from the rocket for its life in orbit.

Trial separation prepares for final release

Sentinel-2A is in the middle of an extensive testing programme to make sure this land-monitoring satellite is fit for launch next spring. As well as being shaken and stressed, engineers have also checked that it will separate from the rocket for its life in orbit.

Earth from Space

Copernicus operations secured until 2021

In a landmark agreement for Europe’s Copernicus programme, the European Commission and ESA have signed an Agreement of over €3 billion to manage and implement the Copernicus ‘space component’ between 2014 and 2021.

Copernicus operations secured until 2021

In a landmark agreement for Europe’s Copernicus programme, the European Commission and ESA have signed an Agreement of over €3 billion to manage and implement the Copernicus ‘space component’ between 2014 and 2021.

Air quality under new scrutiny

As part of the preparations for the Sentinel-5 Precursor air-quality monitoring mission, scientists teamed up in Romania recently to test different airborne systems that will be used to ensure this new satellite delivers accurate measurements of pollutants in the air we breathe.

Air quality under new scrutiny

As part of the preparations for the Sentinel-5 Precursor air-quality monitoring mission, scientists teamed up in Romania recently to test different airborne systems that will be used to ensure this new satellite delivers accurate measurements of pollutants in the air we breathe.

Land stability monitoring service wins Copernicus Masters

The first satellite-based service for extensive and uninterrupted monitoring and mapping of land stability has won the top prize in the European Earth-monitoring competition.

Land stability monitoring service wins Copernicus Masters

The first satellite-based service for extensive and uninterrupted monitoring and mapping of land stability has won the top prize in the European Earth-monitoring competition.

Mumbai

Earth from Space

Copernicus Sentinel-1: making our seas safer

Within the first days of its operational life, the Sentinel-1A satellite has provided data for marine services in the Arctic.

Copernicus Sentinel-1: making our seas safer

Within the first days of its operational life, the Sentinel-1A satellite has provided data for marine services in the Arctic.

Monitoring epidemics

Europe secures new generation of weather satellites

Contracts were signed today to build three pairs of MetOp Second Generation satellites, ensuring the continuity of essential information for global weather forecasting and climate monitoring for decades to come.

High desert

Earth from Space

Fishbone forest

Romania to shed new light on the atmosphere

Romania is leading the way in an ambitious project to build an instrument to detect and monitor tiny particles suspended in the air. The new ‘lidar’– the first of its kind in Europe – is set to contribute to ESA’s satellites that focus on the atmosphere.

Kalma

Earth from Space

Dragon receives high award in China

Following a decade of cooperation, China has honoured ESA’s Yves-Louis Desnos with the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award – the country’s highest honour for foreign experts who have contributed to China’s economic and social progress.

My Planet from Space

The fragility and beauty of our planet came into focus yesterday with a special viewing of satellite images at Rome’s Palazzo delle Esposizioni. The event was attended by the heads of ESA, NASA, Italy’s space agency and representatives from the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

My Planet from Space

First Copernicus satellite now operational

With the commissioning of Sentinel-1A completed and the satellite’s transfer to the team in charge of its exploitation, its data are available as of today to all users.

This marks the beginning of the satellite’s operational life, delivering radar coverage for an array of applications in the areas of oceans, ice, changing land and emergency response.

Athabasca oil sands

CryoSat unveils secrets of the deep

ESA’s ice mission has been used to create a new gravity map, exposing thousands of previously unchartered ‘seamounts’, ridges and deep ocean structures. This vivid new picture of the least-explored part of the ocean offers fresh clues about how continents form and breakup.

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Earth’s portrait

Earth from Space

New toolboxes make using Sentinel data easy

The Sentinel satellites are built primarily to deliver information for environmental services through Europe’s Copernicus programme, but they will also be used to advance our scientific understanding of Earth. Paving the way for easy scientific exploitation, ESA has released three new open source scientific software toolboxes.

Good and bad news for our atmosphere

Data from ESA’s veteran Envisat satellite show ups and downs in the concentrations of the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide and the climate-relevant greenhouse gas carbon dioxide across the globe.

GOCE reveals gravity dip from ice loss

Although not designed to map changes in Earth’s gravity over time, ESA’s extraordinary satellite has shown that the ice lost from West Antarctica over the last few years has left its signature.

Athens on the radar

Earth from Space

Helsinki

Earth from Space

ESA trains tomorrow’s Earth observation scientists

World-renowned remote sensing experts gathered in Valencia, Spain, last week to train the next generation of Earth observation scientists in the exploitation of satellite data for land applications.

My Planet from Space

My Planet from Space

Paving the way for carbon mission

Scientists met in California this summer to test new methods for measuring greenhouse gases. This joint effort helps to show how ESA’s CarbonSat candidate satellite mission could identify sources of carbon dioxide and methane and how they disperse in the atmosphere.

Bringing Earth observation to the everyday user

Using satellites for improving the exploitation of water resources is just one of the innovative ideas developed over the week-long 'camp' dedicated to creating mobile apps drawing on Earth observation data. 

Lake Gairdner

Bardarbunga belches

Satellites are showing clouds of sulphur dioxide from Iceland’s restive Bardarbunga volcano.

Remote learning

Remote learning

Remote learning

Lake Chad

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Radar vision maps Napa Valley earthquake

Sentinel-1A has added yet another string to its bow. Radar images from this fledgling satellite have been used to map the rupture caused by the biggest earthquake that has shaken northern California in 25 years.

A wing for Sentinel-2A

Imaging Earth’s land with unprecedented speed and resolution has come another step closer as the next Sentinel satellite has been given its solar wing and started a strenuous six-month test campaign to make sure that it is fit for launch next April.

Sentinel-1 poised to monitor motion

Although it was only launched a few months ago and is still being commissioned, the new Sentinel-1A radar satellite has already shown that it can be used to generate 3D models of Earth’s surface and will be able to closely monitor land and ice surface deformation.

Ice sheet highs, lows and loss

Measurements from ESA’s CryoSat mission have been used to map the height of the huge ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica and show how they are changing. New results reveal combined ice volume loss at an unprecedented rate of 500 cubic kilometres a year.

Summer school success

Young Earth scientists from all over the world have wrapped up their two-week course at ESA’s ESRIN centre for Earth observation in Frascati, Italy.

Monitoring volcanoes

Sea of sand

Earth from Space

Costa Concordia tow

Lifetime of gravity measurements heralds new beginning

Although ESA’s GOCE satellite is no more, all of the measurements it gathered during its life skirting the fringes of our atmosphere, including the very last as it drifted slowly back to Earth, have been drawn together to offer new opportunities for science.

Monitoring water quality down under

Former Copernicus Masters competition winner EOMAP has launched a new web-based application that provides daily maps of Australia’s coastal water quality.

Cal Madow

Earth from Space

Versatility extends life of water mission

SMOS is not only delivering key information on soil moisture and ocean salinity for science, but its data are also being used for a growing number of practical applications. Reflecting this versatility along with new synergistic opportunities, the mission will now remain operational until at least 2017.

Texcoco

Doubling radar vision of Earth

Following a contract signed with Arianespace today, the second Sentinel-1 satellite is now set to join its identical twin sister in orbit in early 2016, optimising the mission’s global coverage to manage the environment and improve everyday lives.

Earth from Space

Satellites for sports

Rio

How does a beer cooler help understand climate?

While engineers have almost finished building the first Sentinel-3 satellite for ocean forecasting and marine safety, a beer cooler has an unusual role in supporting the long-term record of sea-surface temperatures.

Shifting land won't stop your journey

Subsidence, rockfalls and landslides threaten potentially devastating human and economic consequences across Europe – but satellites can help.